IG Questions Financial Dealings By Women's Business Advocate Women’s business advocate Amy Millman, president of Springboard Enterprises, is involved in a long-running dispute with SBA’s inspector general over alleged financial irregularities while Millman was executive director of the National Women’s Business Council, a federal agency. The IG accuses Millman of a number of conflicts of interest when she founded Springboard, a networking organization for women entrepreneurs, in 2000, while she was still on the government payroll. The IG’s July 2003 report says Springboard and another unidentified organization received more than $600,000, the proceeds from networking events organized or hosted by the National Women’s Business Council; the IG says the funds belong to the government. In response, Millman’s attorney, Stephen Anthony, wrote to the IG that it is “grossly unfair” to seek to recover the money long after the expenditures had been approved by SBA. “It’s like revisionist history,” Millman told the Washington Post, which first reported the story May 20. “I don’t know where they got these numbers from.” Springboard, a nonprofit corporation, was an offshoot of networking programs organized by the Women’s Business Council to connect women entrepreneurs with venture capital investors. The IG said Springboard was incorporated in September 2000, with funding from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Millman was listed as president at a $100,000 annual salary. Another Council employee, Debra Filtzer, was named secretary-treasurer. Millman and Filtzer continued to work for the Council until the spring of 2001, but the IG said they were spending most of their time on Springboard business. According to their attorney’s response, they believed their work with Springboard, rather than being a conflict of interest, was “very much a part of their official duties” to foster the growth of woman-owned businesses. They said their involvement was approved and praised by Council members. Millman told the Post she does not know where Springboard will get the money to pay what the IG says it owes to the government. The IG said Millman also repeatedly violated federal travel regulations, including attending Springboard events at government expense. Millman’s attorney said she relied on another Council employee to book the travel and comply with the rules.